A
SOUTH African man held in Zimbabwe over an alleged plot to overthrow
the government in Equatorial Guinea has died.

Ngave Jarukemo Muharukua
(35), one of the 68 men held in a Zimbabwean jail, died yesterday in
a Harare hospital, where he had been admitted last week, the state news
agency reported. The cause of death was not revealed.

"Ngave, a South
African citizen, has died," New Ziana quoted an unnamed prison
official as saying, without giving further details.

A lawyer who has
been representing the men could not confirm the death when contacted
by reporters.

The deceased was
one of 70 men arrested at Harare's international airport in March when
a plane they were travelling on stopped to pick up weapons from a state
arms manufacturer.

The men were last
month sentenced to prison terms ranging from one to seven years for
violating Zimbabwean immigration, firearms and aviation laws, and only
two were acquitted.

Sixty-seven of them,
including the deceased, received prison terms of between 12 and 16 months
for breaching immigration laws.

German Eugen Nershz,
one of the 15 foreigners arrested in Equatorial Guinea in connection
with the coup attempt, died several days after his arrest, supposedly
from complications arising from cerebral malaria. But Amnesty International
said Nershz died "apparently as a result of torture".

Meanwhile, Ugandan
President Yoweri Museveni has suggested that the easiest way to deal
with mercenaries in Africa is to shoot them.